Nitrous Oxide

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a potent greenhouse gas with a 100-year global warming potential 298 times greater than carbon dioxide. Agriculture contributes almost 90% of total N2O emissions in Ireland, mainly due to nitrogen fertiliser use and emissions from animal waste. However, N2O fluxes from agricultural soils remain one of the most uncertain emission sources due to large spatial and temporal variability. On-going research seeks to determine the effectiveness of various N2O mitigation options for Irish agriculture and to improve the national agricultural N2O inventory by generating country-specific N2O emission factors. N uptake, N leaching and ammonia volatilisation will also be quantified. In addition, disaggregated N2O emission factors will be determined for different N sources, soil types, climate and time of year.

More information on the Nitrous Oxide Project can be found on the AGRI-I website